Prayer/Spell for 2021

the sacred is pervasive*, so i am opening to it, not reaching for it.

as i learn to further honor my needs & vulnerabilities,

i lay down illusions of “being good” or “helping” or “fixing,”

i compost the lies of “not enough” & “too much,”

and i relinquish smiling for the comfort of others.

i know that my full humanity is not only invited but required for our collective liberation!**

i celebrate my capacity to feel.

i celebrate my capacity to be with paradox.

i am softening the stories of my mind and allowing my body to tell me what’s true.***

even when it is hard to feel and trust this: i know i am held & guided.

the support and the lessons i need are abundantly available in each moment.

i am a leader who magnifies possibilities,****

and i celebrate that i am not separate from anything else.

i stay curious about my relationship with the spotlight.

i honor my need for solitude, and also I revel in allowing myself to be held.

i romance my shadow, my wildness, my reverent irreverence.

my blood flows with burning churning yearning love & expansively horny compassion.*****

i easefully tend and easefully share my sex magic, my song magic, my many hallelujahs.

i know in my bones that healing is omni-directional & multi-dimensional,

and i cultivate mutually supportive intimacy with my kin throughout all of time.

i let my Queer ancestors sing to me, breathe with me, laugh through me.

grounded in the truth that joy & belonging are birthrights,

i am growing into the unapologetically tender, unabashedly fabulous ancestor i long to become.

in continuous practice with the alchemy of intention & attention,

i give even more care to the soil than to the seeds.

regardless of circumstance, i am dedicated to collaborating with Life!******


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this spell is inspired by a framework from adrienne maree brown

*this phrase is inspired by Bayo Akumolafe

**this is me riffing on wisdom shared by Lama Rod Owens

***an invitation/spell from Neva Cockrell

****from Chani Nicholas

*****sparked by Rob Brezny’s World Kiss meditation :)

******an invitation Lydia Farshid-Harutoonian shared with me, referencing Joanna Macy

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ORION S. JOHNSTONE (they/he) is a transgender faggot witch, a Queer-as-fuck/care-centered community minister, writer, theater director, composer, sex educator, muckraker and lover, living with chronic illness. First and foremost, they dance with the question: “who and how might we be together most bravely in light of our collective liberation?” www.orionjohnstone.com

Orion Johnstone